The politicians in the legislature were frantic about losing their jobs (and those of their families, friends and cronies hired as assistants, consultants, and staff), but here’s the important part,

The referendum’s results mean Puerto Rico remains the only place in the Western Hemisphere where everyone is entitled to bail regardless of the alleged crime.
…
The bail amendment would have granted judges the right to deny bail to those accused of premeditated murder, killing a police officer or killing someone in a public space or during a home invasion, sexual assault or drive-by shooting..

Puerto Rico – already a transport point for drugs to the USA and the EU – thereby remains particularly attractive, not only for its geography, to enterprising drug lords who know they can always get out, intimidate witnesses, kill again, and jump bail even when they kill a cop, if caught.

Blowback

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I sat out this plebiscite. It’s easy for you up there to throw stones, but you don’t understand how the government here is run by thugs. To give more power to judges is like giving more gasoline to a pyromaniac. We are a kleptocracy to a degree that makes Chicago look as clean as Switzerland.

Read the language of the amendments and consider how much was put into them. For instance, the clause about allowing judges to decide on bail in case of kidnappings. That’s already a Federal crime. How can you expand our local judges’ power in something they have nothing to do with? What is the end game of that wording? The more I read the two amendments, the more I realized that I didn’t have enough information to make a good judgment call.

So I sat it out. You up there should refrain from taking the dog by the ears.

I worked in PR periodically in the 90s-00s. The sooner they are cut loose the better. Without all the mainland welfare money it will look like Haiti in short order. What a dump.

Kungfoochimp on August 20, 2012 at 4:24 PM

Um, it is still a U.S. territory… maybe even a state someday (JoseQ, do you think there’s much chance of that?). Cutting PR loose without their consent would be wrong and would strand a lot of decent people.

Um, it is still a U.S. territory… maybe even a state someday (JoseQ, do you think there’s much chance of that?). Cutting PR loose without their consent would be wrong and would strand a lot of decent people.

I hope not, at least the way the U.S. is going. I personally am for independence for Puerto Rico, not because I have anything against the USA (I lived there for some years and have family there), but because I fear for what will become of Puerto Rico when the USA collapses completely. I see Haiti in our future. So I would prefer we work to get out of the house before we’re kicked out.

To answer your question more directly, I don’t think there’s much of a chance for statehood. The powers that be here benefit too much from the prostitution that is the “Estado Libre Asociado” relationship with the States. Plus, it’s more up to you than it is up to us. Who exactly is willing to give up seats in Congress to let us in?